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Fractal makes commander. Bella doesn't replace him as toon leader - she's only eight and her commander still doesn't know how to use her - but Fractal's replacement, a vet traded in from Platypus who goes by Brighteyes for some reason, does. He spends a chunk of Flame's practice sessions every day putting Bella properly through her paces, and in their battles, he uses her like she was meant to be used: a dancing wildcard, too fast to hit, torpedoing herself into formations with laser precision and shooting from glorious whirling motion with the steadiest arm in school. Bella likes Brighteyes, and he tells her that when he makes commander he'll swap for her if he has to give up six soldiers to do it.
There is an announcement of a rules change: you are not allowed to perform the victory ritual without freezing or disabling all of the enemy.
This rule change is generally attributed to the antics of a Thomas "Sue" Sanderson, who coordinated his toon across the room without commander authorization and won the game before more than four soldiers, total, had been taken out.
It's a month shy of Bella's ninth birthday when Flame and Meerkat once again meet in the battle room.
"Freeze their mutie," Flame's commander tells everyone. "Don't look at me like that, Aegis." (People have occasionally started calling her this; she always picks it as her username or her space station name or whatever she's allowed to christen, and it's started to stick.) "You're not that kind of mutie, but theirs is. He can't do his hivemind shit once he's froze or he'll get iced. That's everyone's priority, clear?"
"Yessir," says each toon leader in unison.
They form up in the corridor.
autokinetic
Next time she signs on to the game, there are no new additions from Sue anywhere in her territory. That's reasonably rare.
autokinetic
She wonders if the game can tell her where he is in the real world again, actually. If he's in his barracks she'll be out of luck - inter-army fraternizing is frowned on - but if he's somewhere else maybe they can have that conversation in more detail. Even if she's not going to tell anyone, she wants to know the limits of what he can do to her. Even if it means experimenting, it's better than lying awake at night.
She paints colored dots on the ground in the antelopes' village. She points at herself, and then at the orange red red that signifies where she is, and then she draws a bird (not a bird person, a bird like Sue's avatar) and gestures more broadly at the dots.
The antelopes look at her. She repeats the sequence.
An antelope points at dots, and they aren't Meerkat's brown yellow yellow.
She signs out again and paints a path to there.
She paints colored dots on the ground in the antelopes' village. She points at herself, and then at the orange red red that signifies where she is, and then she draws a bird (not a bird person, a bird like Sue's avatar) and gestures more broadly at the dots.
The antelopes look at her. She repeats the sequence.
An antelope points at dots, and they aren't Meerkat's brown yellow yellow.
She signs out again and paints a path to there.
He's in a public game room, logged on to a public desk, and he's playing the game.
His avatar is hauling boulders around on an island, with a coastline visible in the middle distance.
His avatar is hauling boulders around on an island, with a coastline visible in the middle distance.
autokinetic
"I need to talk to you," she says, coming up behind him and planting her feet. There's a few other kids around. "Alone."
autokinetic
She paints a path; they go.
In the room, she says: "I need to know what you can do. I'm not spying. I'm not gonna tell Brighteyes or anyone. I just need to know for me."
In the room, she says: "I need to know what you can do. I'm not spying. I'm not gonna tell Brighteyes or anyone. I just need to know for me."
autokinetic
"To me, with your power, through my shield. I felt something and I'm not supposed to get anything and I have to know what I'm wrong about and how bad."
"Okay," he says. "I call it 'pushing' because it feels like," he lets go of one handhold and reaches out and puts a gentle pressure on her arm, "that, but with my mind. What I was trying in that battle, I wasn't pushing anything at you, I was just... pushing, like high-fiving somebody in the corridor when you walk by. Most people, when I push like that, they feel it, and they can push back if they want. You, it's like I try to push and there's a glass wall—I don't see it until I try, but I can't touch you, I just touch the wall instead."
autokinetic
"...But I felt something, there. Were you doing that before? When I rescued you from those boys...?"
"Yeah," he says, "when I was crying, before I said anything, I was shoving like hell on that wall, trying to tell you what was wrong. It didn't budge."
autokinetic
"And I didn't get anything then." She frowns, chewing her lip. "And you felt it the same way both times? Maybe I can just... feel the wall, now, feel it shaking if you push it."
autokinetic
"I guess."
(She doesn't, she's afraid, but she's more afraid of not knowing and being surprised.)
(She doesn't, she's afraid, but she's more afraid of not knowing and being surprised.)
autokinetic
She relaxes fractionally. She closes her eyes and remembers a bird with candle-flame wings, laughing with her, her friend -
"Try again?"
"Try again?"
autokinetic
She flinches.
"I can control it," she says. "It's like - you're knocking, but I don't have to listen." She swallows. "But knocking isn't all you do, is it, you have some kind of hivemindy thing, that's why I was supposed to get you first of everything."
"I can control it," she says. "It's like - you're knocking, but I don't have to listen." She swallows. "But knocking isn't all you do, is it, you have some kind of hivemindy thing, that's why I was supposed to get you first of everything."
"Yeah," he says. "Okay. You remember I said, when I push at people, they can push back? I call that linking."
His free hand describes a back-and-forth line in the air, connecting two imaginary points.
"I can push stuff—I hit that one guy with pain, mostly, but I don't just yell what I'm feeling at my toon, that'd be stupid. I link them all, and I show them what I'm seeing and how I'm moving, and they show me the same stuff back," his hand now draws the spokes of a wheel, always returning to the same hub, "and then I tell them what I want us to do, and we do it."
His free hand describes a back-and-forth line in the air, connecting two imaginary points.
"I can push stuff—I hit that one guy with pain, mostly, but I don't just yell what I'm feeling at my toon, that'd be stupid. I link them all, and I show them what I'm seeing and how I'm moving, and they show me the same stuff back," his hand now draws the spokes of a wheel, always returning to the same hub, "and then I tell them what I want us to do, and we do it."